Genesis 1:3
....."Then God Said........."
No matter how many times I have read the creation account, I always come away with a gazillion questions. Questions I know will never be answered, but are fun to ponder anyway. At least not answered on this side of eternity.
I guess the greatest truth and insight I take away from the creation account is that our words have power. If God's words took shape and formed everything we see, touch, taste, smell and hear....then what about our words? Oh, I don't mean that we can create matter from the sound of our voice. But we do possess the ability to shape hearts and lives through the power of our words.
One of my most favorite times of all is when the grand kids are over to see Vicki and me. I'll be on the couch and they will come and pile up next to me and we sit there in kind of a jumble of legs, arms and hearts. I'll look at Ashley and Tyler and smile and say, "I love you!" Those very words, as simple as they are, cause these two to move even closer to me. Smiles on their faces, arms wrapped around me, both whisper back..."I love you poppa."
My words, spoken from my heart of love for these two children, reaffirm and help them to know that there is a constant in a world where everything is in chaos and turmoil.
Ephesians 4:29 reads: Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers
My words should be "grace" builders, not miniature wrecking balls to hurt and destroy the people around us. God uses words to build up....the devil uses words to tear down. Isn't the devil's resume one that reads "he has come to steal, kill and destroy?" I think so.
I am going through the book of Job at this time, and it is painful. Painful in reading about how Job's friends came to try and comfort him during his trial with words that sounded religious but were as dry and dead as a rotten tree. Why is it painful? Because I have been one of those friends. I have spoken words over others and tried to label it as speaking the truth in love. In reality I was heaping judgment on them. How sick was I? I guess what I want more than anything is to just remain silent during such times until God actually gives me something to say. Just because I have the ability to speak doesn't mean I have to, or need to. Sometimes what God desires of me is to just be there for others. Not to critique their spiritual condition and supply them with a kind of warped "Step #4". You know the one where it says we are to take "A searching and fearless moral inventory of everyone around us and then promptly tell them what is wrong with them." Sometimes there is more power in silence than in filling the air with words. This is a lesson I need to learn.
Oh well, it is all part of the growing up in Christ process that is a part of this relationship with Him. Painful sometimes, but necessary. Like John Wimber use to say..."I want to grow up before I grow older." Me too, John...me too.
God on you....
mb
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